1850 Census

Along the stretch of the North Fork of the American River between Euchre Bar and Humbug Bar there is but one domicile, a house on Dorer Ranch. The Dorer family has occupied the site since the 1860s. They apparently value their privacy, for I hear that atop Foresthill Divide the gate across the dirt road that winds down to the house is kept locked. I've reached the Dorer property twice, hiking in along the river from Iron Point near Alta. Those walks on the Gold Rush-era trail were solitary, for few people venture into the deep canyons nowadays. But it wasn't always quiet down there. A bit over a century ago, the clanging from the stamp mills at the Southern Cross and Blackhawk mines reverberated throughout the canyon. A twenty-horse power gasoline engine generated electricity for the incandescent lights and telephone lines and air compressors of the Southern Cross. The greatest activity was in the early years of the Gold Rush, when miners worked the gravels. The level spots they dug into the hillsides to pitch their tents testify to their presence, and sometimes the ceramic shard of a bowl or cup may be found. As far as I know, only the Nisenan walked this area before the Gold Rush - I've found nothing of Hudson Bay trappers coming this far upriver.

Would the 1850 Federal Census show the number of miners down at the river early in the Gold Rush? Today I went to the Placer County Archives to find out. Placer County didn't exist in 1850 - it was formed in 1851 from portions of Sutter and Yuba counties. The archivist provided the microfilm and I scanned the documents for both counties. Names of Americans were listed along with their home state. Others had no name, only a listing such as Kanaka and Chinaman and Spaniard. Occupations were listed, most being Miner. But there was nothing to indicate which portions of the census were taken at the river, so we can only speculate as to how crowded it was in the canyons long ago.